Tulsa World: TU's Cooper among HOF inductees

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TU's Cooper among HOF inductees
The coach led Tulsa to five conference titles.

Former TU coach John Cooper will be enshrined into the College Football Hall of Fame on Saturday. Tulsa World file

By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer
Published: 7/18/2009 2:24 AM
Last Modified: 7/18/2009 3:51 AM

The Justice Bowl isn't on John Cooper's coaching resume, but 14 other postseason games — make that "actual" postseason games — are.

That's why Cooper is among 21 men (with Troy Aikman, Thurman Thomas and others) to be enshrined on Saturday in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Cooper led the University of Tulsa to a 57-31 record and five Missouri Valley Conference titles from 1977-84. His overall coaching mark — which included successful stops at Arizona State and Ohio State — is 192-84-6 (.681). But he still recalls Tulsa as one of his fondest coaching stops.

That includes the 1982 season, when TU went 10-1 and wasn't invited to a bowl game. That December, TU "met" another 10-1 bowl-snubbed team, New Mexico, in what was called the "Justice Bowl." Radio teams from each school broadcast an imaginary contest. The Lobos won on their broadcast 30-27. Two days later, the Golden Hurricane prevailed 27-24 over the Tulsa airwaves.

"Can you believe that?" Cooper said. "We beat Air Force, we beat Kansas, we beat teams that went to bowl games and we stayed home. I look back and I see teams now going with a 6-6 record

"I think a bowl game should be a reward for a good season. I never coached any place where I thought 6-6 was a good season."

Cooper grew up in rural Tennessee a disciple of Robert Neyland's Volunteers.

"I grew up so far out in the country, you had to come towards town to go hunting," he said. "I used to hitchhike to Knoxville and slip in the stadium and sell Cokes at the games. I could tell you every Tennessee football player, their number, hometown, height, weight, all that kind of stuff."

Being enshrined in the hall of fame, he said, is the peak of a stellar career. But it's far from the highlight of Cooper's life. That would be his wife of nearly 52 years, Helen.

"That's the greatest thing that ever happened to me, is her," Cooper said. "I could recruit, I'll tell you that. I picked the prettiest girl in class and talked her into marrying me."

John E. Hoover 581-8384
john.hoover@tulsaworld.com By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer

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GoldenDriller1, Out of State (7/18/2009 8:16:34 AM)

Congrats to Coach John Cooper - We appreciate your work at TU. You have earned the recongizition.

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